Finnabair's Prima journal - birthday pressie!

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to do some classes with Finnabair (Anna Dabrowska)  in Swindon.  Such fun!  What did I learn?  That when you think you have applied enough trinkets, you really haven't!  Keep going and add at least 6 more!

We made up a pair of Prima journal covers, a la Finn.  I LOVED doing this, but as I was decorating it, I realised that my sister would be getting it as her birthday pressie, as she is always looking for journals (well, she'd probably call it a notebook) to keep track of her electricity reading.  Yes, I know.  Electricity readings.  Not really the stuff of scrapbooking heaven, eh?

Anyway, I won't go into all the gory details of how we decorated the covers, except to say...mmmm Primary Elements!  You can't go wrong with Black Emerald, which is a lovely DARK blue green.  Love it.

The inside dividers were packaging!  Cut with Sizzix on the edge dies, then gessoed, and painted up.  By now, if you haven't realised that I like mica, glitter, metallic stuff, well, you haven't read many of these pages, have you!  So flat base colours, then washes and glittery stuff to finish.

I made up a pouch for one of the dividers, using watercolour paper coloured with Brusho pigments on a Linda Knight session a couple of months back.  The colours looked right!  I also punched butterflies out of the remnants.  They glitter!  A lot!







Then I found some brown A5 envelopes, and covered them with matching gelli print papers - I think probably from an Andy Skinner session - but may have been with Linda Knight - in the pile of gelli print papers without a home...

A couple of other white A5 envelopes I tried something else...don't know why I haven't done this before...swooshed distress ink onto my mat, and instead of spraying with water, sprayed with pearl cosmic shimmer!  Wow!  Overstamped with a huge lace background stamp in a couple of different Archival inks, and then added some embellishments, which reflect my sister's great age (hah!  She'll kill me for that!!)  Land of The Giants...





On one of the envelopes, I had been playing with Stampboard - and a PaperArtsy stamp in several colours, and it fit with the theme.  So on it went!











Then I cut loads and LOADS of different papers to fit, and used my cropodile to hole punch them. 




To finish off, I used the remnants of one of the gelli papers and punched a scalloped edge.  I stamped the letters and the tags, then used he matching punch to punch them out.  Touch of stickles, and hey presto!  One birthday card, for an aged relative....  Yep, dead again!

Hope she likes!!

Resources (A selection...)

Prima Journal Covers, and various Prima embellishments - and other embellishments
Stampboard

Sizzix on the edge: Butterflies and Houses

Andy Skinner Mask (the children on the gelli plate)

Distress inks
Stewart Gill Paints
PaperArtsy Fresco paints
Brusho pigments
Cosmic Shimmers spray
Primary Elements, added to water, and sprayed, various colours

Stampin' Up: Tag stamp, and punch
Martha Stewart Butterfly punch
Hero Arts: Letter stamps
PaperArtsy Antique butterfly stamp

Finnabair's Canvas - completed

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend a weekend retreat in Swindon, with Anna Dabrowska (AKA Finnabair).  One of the things we did was a canvas, but it wasn't quite finished in my eyes. 

Then...I found a lovely Artemio frame at The Stamp Attic, and I knew what I wanted to do! 

We spent the weekend doing a lot of spraying, using mainly Primary Elements in solution.  These are highly pigmented mica powders.  MMMMMM. My favourite colour is called Black Emerald, and because it is my favourite, it was all over the canvas.  So it needed to be all over the frame.  So I had to order some.  Note to self, next time, get a HUGE pot!  I have a feeling I will end up painting a wall with it! 

Not sure I am going to remember every step, but here goes...  The box canvas was covered with torn strips of canvas and lace and then embellished to within an inch of its life.  The photo is a random lady, cut out, and protected from the painting and spraying that went on around it, but then dabbed with a tiny bit of pink ink (probably Picked Raspberry DI, knowing me!).  Black and white gesso, meeting in the middle. Then sprayed with the Black Emerald..  I suspect looking at it, it may also have a touch of Olive Vine, or maybe Kiwi sprayed on!



Ok, the frame.  A light sanding, then painted with white gesso.  Embellished to match the canvas, and painted all over with black acrylic.  Dry brushed with white paint from one corner.

































Here comes the Black Emerald!  I made up a fairly thick solution in a spray bottle, and mostly sprayed from one corner. Then decided to go for it, and basically sprayed almost all of it!  I did leave the white corner a little light... 





















When dry (I'm getting better at leaving things to dry...), I glued on the rain drops, on the frame, and on the canvas. Wish I had some more of them, no idea where they came from, but they did a good job of tying the canvas and frame together.  I love how they magnify the drops of mica, or the brush strokes.  Really lovely!

Ok, off to find ANOTHER bit of wall.  Hope you like!

Resources

Substrates:  Canvas, Artemio Box frame

Embellishments:  Prima in the main, with other bits and pieces from my stash (and Finn's!), including lace

Paint etc
Gesso
Acrylic

Bling
Primary Elements: Black Emerald (and possibly others, don't know precisely what Finn mixed up for us)
Rain drops